MPs winning Assembly polls have to quit one seat in fourteen days: Expert

NEW DELHI: Several of the MPs who contested the Assembly polls and won will have to quit one of the seats in the next 14 days, else they stand to lose their Parliament membership, an expert said citing provisions of the Constitution.

The BJP fielded 21 MPs, including Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Prahlad Singh Patel and Faggan Singh Kulaste, in the Assembly polls — seven each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, four in Chhattisgarh and three in Telangana. The MPs who win polls will have to quit one of their seats in the next 14 days.

“If they don’t, on expiry of 14 days, they will lose their membership of Parliament. However, they can continue as members of the state legislative Assembly,” Constitution expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achari said, citing the Prevention of Simultaneous Membership Rule issued by the president in 1950 under Article 101 of the constitution.